This bike will cost you a fortune in sliders.
Boasting ahefty amount of power, with arespectable weight and awheelbase so short you can imagine how agile this thing is just by eyeballing it, there’s alot to like about the MV. And then there’s the look ofit, which is as exotic as its price tag, hammering home the point that this triple-cylinder beauty is not your everyday naked… it really is something quite special. Of course, there are always two sides toevery story, and while it could be argued that how abike rides isless important than how itlooks or sounds, Ibeg to differ. Yes, there isalot to lure you to this machine, not least ofall the irresistible soundtrack that screams its way out of the bike’s stacked triple silencers, but when push came to shove and the throttle got turned in anger, the MV proved to be more ‘show than go’.
Allow metoelaborate, starting with the motor. Itissomething of abeast and undoubtedly the showpiece of this Italian stallion, cranking out aclaimed 140bhp and ahefty 87Nm of torque to back things up. Lacking in firepower it most certainly is not, or technological features, with a counterrotating crank in the mix, plus an abundance of fancy engineering features that’d put many a racing bike to shame. But refinement and usability out on the road is a whole different conversation.
While Ishould point out that the MV is kitted with several rider modes which can be altered between if you have the patience of a saint and the capacity to conquer Rubix cubes with your eyes shut (the switchgears are not the most intuitive), then you can dumb down the power delivery on tap from this thing, but even in‘sport’ mode (which was astep down from ‘race’ and aviable selection for the enthusiastic nature of our test), the Brutale felt abit brutal and took some getting used to. Admittedly, there are many worse examples of fuelling on the market, but the urgency of the engine, which delivers way more torque than you’d expect it to when you roll on the throttle, is enough to put false teeth to the back of your throat. The funny thing is that as much as Ifound myself initially awed by the engine, it’s on/off nature soon wore thin and began to pee me off. On track, it’d make much more sense, but on the road, it was too keen for me –and especially so for the bike’s suspension.
The forks felt softer than butter and the rear shock wasn’t much more supportive, reminding me of a kid’s seesaw down the park. As Issac Newton once said, ‘Every action has an equal and opposite reaction’, which is especially true on the MV. We tried hard to alter the adjustable units to suit our masses and riding styles, but the damping on tap just wasn’t enough to cope with the respectable amount of abuse being put through the units. The truth is, every crack of the throttle saw the rear end squat and the ‘bars go light, while every grab of the front brakes was met with an equally undesirable amount of travel being used. To get the best out of this bike, you had to be super-smooth, and the same went for when throwing it through a corner. It felt nervous, twitchy, and often unstable, which was exciting at times but terrifying at others. It was so unpredictable that it was hard to commit into big angles in a way you could on its rivals.